Immigration

Emerson Brooking and Janine Davidson, writing in Defense One, assess the state of the special immigration program reserved for Afghan interpreters who have assisted American forces. The authors argue that its renewal is both a strategic and moral imperative.

"Flows of migrants and refugees influence and change the social, economic and political dynamics of their destinations--and the places they have left behind," writes the Inter Press Service on human migration. Immigration Research Links provides resources for news, legislation, statistics, organizations, and reports on immigration.

Jagdish Bhagwati and Francisco Rivera-Batiz argue that the United States must adopt a more humane policy regarding illegal immigrants. They argue that top-down approaches such as sanctions, border security, and punishments are not effective. Instead, they propose a shift to a bottom-up reform based on state competition.

Even if immigration reform managed to get through congress, it would do little to stem illegal immigration or improve the plight of the undocumented. So policymakers should shift their focus to a more humane, bottom-up approach: letting states compete for illegal immigrants.

"In a noticeable and important shift in global migratory patterns, millions of migrant workers are no longer relying on the U.S. as heavily as they did for better-paying jobs that allowed them to send money home to families in Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia. Instead, they have moved more to developing economies, creating a shift in money transfers out of countries like Chile, Brazil and Malaysia."

"Though the overall number of arrests along the southern U.S. border has fallen near its lowest point in 40 years, there has been a surge of unlawful newcomers from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador since 2011."

On July 10, 2013, President Barack Obama's National Economic Council, Domestic Policy Council, Office of Management and Budget, and the Council of Economic Advisers released a report on the "range of benefits to the U.S. economy that would be realized from passage of commonsense immigration reform, and the high costs of inaction."